Latest news with #OzyMedia
Reuters
12-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Santos, R. Kelly prosecutor rejoins law firm Cleary from Brooklyn US attorney's office
May 12 (Reuters) - Breon Peace, who as Brooklyn's U.S. attorney prosecuted R&B singer R. Kelly and former Republican U.S. Representative George Santos, has rejoined Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton as a partner, the law firm said Monday. Peace, who served as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York under Democratic President Joe Biden, resigned days before Republican President Donald Trump was inaugurated in January. Joseph Nocella Jr., a Nassau County judge who is Trump's nominee to replace Pearce, was sworn in as interim U.S. attorney last week. Nocella's nomination is currently pending before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, as is Trump's pick to lead the neighboring Southern District of New York, former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chair Jay Clayton. Under Peace's tenure, the Eastern District obtained a 30-year prison sentence for Kelly for sex crimes and racketeering, and secured Santos' guilty plea for fraud and identity theft. Prosecutors argued last month that Santos should receive more than seven years in prison. Peace's office also won the conviction of Ozy Media founder Carlos Watson for defrauding investors in his now-defunct startup. Trump commuted Watson's nearly 10-year prison sentence in March. The office under Peace secured the conviction of former Mexican security minister Genaro Garcia Luna on charges of taking bribes from the drug cartels he was supposed to fight. Garcia Luna was sentenced to more than 38 years in prison in October. Peace disclosed in 2021 as part of his nomination that he earned more than $4 million from Cleary since 2020. At the time, his clients included HSBC Bank, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, American Airlines, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Whirlpool. He will co-lead the law firm's litigation group, Cleary said in Monday's announcement.
Axios
31-03-2025
- Business
- Axios
Trump pardons a bunch of white-collar crooks
President Trump on Friday pardoned two startup founders convicted of investor fraud, and three crypto exchange co-founders who had plead guilty to violating anti-money laundering laws. Why it matters: There's never been a better time to be a white-collar crook. Pardon 1: Trevor Milton, co-founder and CEO of bankrupt electric truckmaker Nikola Motors. His most egregious act may have been sharing a video that purported to show a fully functional prototype, whereas the truck actually was rolling down a small hill. And then there was the lying about billions of dollars in orders. Milton was sentenced to four years in prison for both securities and wire fraud, and ordered to pay nearly $700 million in restitution. He had been free on appeal, during which time he donated bigly to Trump-related groups. Oh, and his lawyer was the brother of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. Pardon 2: Carlos Watson, co-founder and CEO of defunct Ozy Media. You may remember Ozy Media for a phone call during which Watson's co-founder, who plead guilty and cooperated with prosecutors, pretended to be a YouTube executive while on a reference call with prospective investor Goldman Sachs. Plus, lots of lying about company financials and proposed deals. Watson was literally on a plane to prison when the pardon arrived. In a statement, he reiterated his argument that the prosecution was "driven by a malicious campaign orchestrated by a jealous competitor at a rival media company" — an absurd claim based on the phone call first being reported by then-NY Times reporter Ben Smith, whose former company once held takeover talks with Ozy. He also claimed that Ozy "was on the brink of becoming Silicon Valley's first Black-owned publicly traded company before these wrongful actions derailed our progress." Ozy had never filed paperwork to go public, nor were there any such conversations ever reported. Instead, it was trying to raise new VC funding. Finally, Watson thanked Alice Marie Johnson, who was famously granted clemency by President Trump after public support from Kim Kardashian. Pardon 3: Co-founders and a former employee of BitMEX, who had violated the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to implement AML and KYC procedures. The exchange itself later pleaded guilty to similar charges. The quartet had been tried by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, as had been Trevor Milton. It's the same office that charged and convicted Trump, earning his public ire. Watson was tried by the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump commutes Ozy Media founder's criminal fraud sentence
President Trump commuted the prison sentence of Carlos Watson, a co-founder of now-defunct digital media company Ozy Media, shortly before the entrepreneur was set to start serving a nearly decade-long jail term. 'I am profoundly grateful to President Trump for correcting this grave injustice. His decision reflects his unwavering commitment to fairness and justice for those who have been wrongfully targeted,' Watson said in Friday night's statement. Watson was sentenced in December last year to serve a 116-month-long sentence for lying to investors about the company's finances. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit securities fraud. Watson has denied wrongdoing. The media entrepreneur claimed on Friday that the prosecution of Ozy Media and himself was 'driven by a malicious campaign orchestrated by a jealous competitor at a rival media company.' 'These baseless federal cases were pursued 3,000 miles away from where OZY was based, and things went from bad to worse when a conflicted and unethical judge took control,' Watson wrote. Last December, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York said that Watson, along with co-conspirators, from 2018 to 2021, orchestrated a 'scheme to defraud investors out of tens of millions of dollars' via 'fraudulent misrepresentations and omissions' of the company's financial well-being. 'His incessant and deliberate lies demonstrated not only a brazen disregard for the rule of law, but also a contempt for the values of honesty and fairness that should underlie American entrepreneurship,' U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said at the time. Ozy, the digital media start-up, was founded in 2012, focused on profiling 'the new and the next' in politics, business, national and foreign affairs. The company shut down in 2021, less than a week after The New York Times article outlined that Ozy's Samir Rao, the firm's chief operating officer, had previously impersonated a YouTube executive during a conference call with potential investors. Watson apologized, writing that Rao was suffering from a mental health crisis, The Times reported. Trump has commuted numerous sentences since starting his second White House term. The clemencies have ranged from Jan. 6, 2021 rioters to recently commuting a four-year sentence for Trevor Milton, the founder of electric vehicle company Nikola. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
29-03-2025
- Business
- The Hill
Trump commutes Ozy Media founder's criminal fraud sentence
President Trump commuted the prison sentence of Carlos Watson, a co-founder of now-defunct digital media company Ozy Media, shortly before the entrepreneur was set to start serving a nearly decade-long jail term. 'I am profoundly grateful to President Trump for correcting this grave injustice. His decision reflects his unwavering commitment to fairness and justice for those who have been wrongfully targeted,' Watson said in Friday night's statement. Watson was sentenced in December last year to serve a 116-month-long sentence for lying to investors about the company's finances. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit securities fraud. Watson has denied wrongdoing. The media entrepreneur claimed on Friday that the prosecution of Ozy Media and himself was 'driven by a malicious campaign orchestrated by a jealous competitor at a rival media company.' 'These baseless federal cases were pursued 3,000 miles away from where OZY was based, and things went from bad to worse when a conflicted and unethical judge took control,' Watson wrote. Last December, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York said that Watson, along with co-conspirators, from 2018 to 2021, orchestrated a 'scheme to defraud investors out of tens of millions of dollars' via 'fraudulent misrepresentations and omissions' of the company's financial well-being. 'His incessant and deliberate lies demonstrated not only a brazen disregard for the rule of law, but also a contempt for the values of honesty and fairness that should underlie American entrepreneurship,' U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said at the time. Ozy, the digital media start-up, was founded in 2012, focused on profiling 'the new and the next' in politics, business, national and foreign affairs. The company shut down in 2021, less than a week after The New York Times article outlined that Ozy's Samir Rao, the firm's chief operating officer, had previously impersonated a YouTube executive during a conference call with potential investors. Watson apologized, writing that Rao was suffering from a mental health crisis, The Times reported. Trump has commuted numerous sentences since starting his second White House term. The clemencies have ranged from Jan. 6, 2021 rioters to recently commuting a four-year sentence for Trevor Milton, the founder of electric vehicle company Nikola.
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump Goes on Friday Pardon Spree for Crypto, Media Heads
President Donald Trump on Friday commuted the criminal fraud sentence of Carlos Watson, a co-founder of Ozy Media, as well as the probation sentence imposed on the now-defunct company, and pardoned three co-founders and an ex-employee of a cryptocurrency exchange that prosecutors said was essentially a laundering platform. Watson was expected to report to prison on Friday to begin a nearly 10-year sentence for attempting to defraud investors in Ozy Media by misrepresenting its financials, its business relationships, and the likelihood of it being acquired. Watson had also been convicted of aggravated identity theft. Ozy Media shut down in Oct. 2021 after The New York Times reported that the company's chief operating officer, Samir Rao, pretended to be a YouTube executive while speaking with Goldman Sachs. Last month, a federal judge ordered Watson and the company to pay nearly $60 million in forfeiture and more than $36 million in restitution. Trump's commutation nullifies those penalties, the Times reported. Other beneficiaries of Trump's executive powers Friday were Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed—three co-founders of BitMEX, who had each pled guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act. Former head of business development Gregory Dwyer pleaded the same, and was pardoned by Trump as well. All four had been sentenced to varying terms of probation, with the three co-founders being ordered to pay civil fines amounting to $30 million. In a statement, according to CNBC, Delo wrote in part, 'This full and unconditional pardon by President Trump is a vindication of the position we have always held—that BitMEX, my co-founders, and I should never have been charged with a criminal offense through an obscure, antiquated law.' Earlier Friday, Trump doled out another pardon to Trevor Milton, the founder of the electric and hydrogen-powered truck startup Nikola. Milton was convicted of securities and wire fraud in 2022. He was sentenced to four years in prison the following year, but was free on bond during his appeal. Milton donated to pro-Trump political action committees last year. Milton's lawyer is Brad Bondi, the brother of Attorney General Pam Bondi.
